


brothers from the black Void

by notearchiver



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Unexpected gentleness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26780257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notearchiver/pseuds/notearchiver
Summary: The Hornet does more than wait around while the Knight fights the Radiance.
Relationships: The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & Hornet
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16
Collections: Writing Rainbow Black





	brothers from the black Void

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alana/gifts).



> In keeping with Hornet calling the Knight(s) "brother," I am using male pronouns for the vessels.

Watching the Knight confront the Vessel, readied for the moment when she would be needed, her promise of help wove through her mind. To help one brother overcome another…a terrible duty. And yet there was no choice to be had if she was to save Hallownest. It was too late to find comfort in Mother's arms; too late to save her brother, lost and infected in the caves of the Abyss; but she could grant her fellow bugs a chance to live anew, neither lost to the Infection nor under the rule of the prideful Pale King.

The Hollow Knight faltered and Hornet darted forward. Embracing the Vessel with her thread, eyes on the Knight, she pierced the mask.

It was no more than a second before the Dream Nail struck true, and as the Knight flickered out of existence to confront the Radiance, Hornet pulled her needle from the mask and slid to the ground. A single drop of the Void dripped from the crack, and the Hollow Knight, too weak to roar, trembled.

Brother. _Brother._

Setting her needle to the side, Hornet stood on the tips of her toes and reached for the mask, but her fingers brushed only air. She strained upwards, hoping to find smooth bone. No use. How large and strong her brother had grown. And how lonely. The drop of Void lingered on the edge of the mask.

Perhaps it was not to be, Hornet admitted.

She had just settled to her knees and was reaching for her needle to clean it when she felt cool breath against her mask. She looked up to see The Hollow Knight leaning over her, hand hovering by her face.

Slowly, so slowly, Hornet took her brother's hand and rested it against her cheek. The Hollow Knight made no indication he had recognized the touch, and so she stretched out her hand and mirrored it. This time the Hollow Knight did shudder.

From what the elderly moth had told her, Hornet understood that the Dream Nail the Knight carried allowed him to see the thoughts of those it struck, cutting to the emotional core. She did not carry the Dream Nail, but she needed it not to know what the Hollow Knight was thinking. They were thoughts she had often meditated on.

_Why._

_Father._

_Brother?_

Hornet cradled the Hollow Knight's masked face in both hands. "Brother," she said. The Hollow Knight inclined his head; the movement was gentle and did not shake her hands from his face. "Let me help."

She threaded her needle with the black of the Void and slowly began to sew the cracked mask shut. As the Void thread wove in and out, the Hollow Knight curled his fingers around the edge of her mask in a caress.

With one final pull, Hornet cut the thread and used the single drop of Void still hanging on the edge of the mask to secure the knot.

"I have missed you," she said. "I would like to know you."

The Hollow Knight nodded, black thread glinting against the white of his mask. To his left, the Knight shimmered back into existence.


End file.
